Rivers
Peace comes in the generosity of water.
—Mary Oliver, “Swimming with Otter”
Peace like a river, says the song,
like a river that curls
through prairie grasses
and cuts through valley slopes
to meet a new beginning
at the ocean’s mouth,
like a river, cool refuge,
that guides weary explorers
and soothes my feet now
after a long hike under the Sun,
like a river that cracks the earth
through the slow passage of time.
Today, I need peace
like that, so fully encompassing
I can swim in it.
Tomorrow, I will give it away.
Kyla Neufeld is a poet and editor living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory. She worships at saint benedict’s table.
Rivers is from “The Shape of Our Life,” poems for saint benedict’s table, written during Kyla’s artist residency in summer 2019.
